Ch.175Answer (6)

The noble movements of First changed as he fought.

He lunged to bite and tear with his teeth, sometimes crawling on all fours across the floor looking for openings.

As his emotions became clearer, he was transforming into a different kind of monster.

And that stark transformation pushed Esmeralda into a corner.

“Haa… Haa…”

Esmeralda had lost most of her weapons. But in exchange, she had inflicted critical wounds on First.

That was quite significant.

She had managed to wound someone who rarely ever got injured. That alone had drastically changed the situation.

“Ah, this is truly infuriating.”

First had already allowed considerable damage.

It was thanks to Esmeralda’s hidden strength and First’s incomplete physical condition.

Moreover, her opponent was consuming blood in real-time.

Of course, it seemed like Esmeralda might die before that happened…

Esmeralda sighed deeply while muttering with dissatisfaction.

“…Millia. Stop watching and help me out.”

“Okay.”

The one who answered Esmeralda’s call was the Mage who, like Eirene, had barely managed to regain consciousness.

The genius mage with the strongest mental fortitude began to rise from the pool of blood.

She had been waiting for an opening all along.

KWAAAANG!

Millia’s staff spewed fire.

“KRAAAAGH!!”

First screamed and rolled on the ground as powerful magic struck him from his blind spot.

A definite hit. However, it still wasn’t enough to kill First.

A decisive blow was missing.

A certain blow comparable to Legion Commander Eleven’s strike.

But they had bought time.

“How dare you vermin!”

“Haha! Where do you think you’re going? We were in the middle of our date.”

Esmeralda rushed toward First as he got to his feet.

She sensed he was glaring at Millia.

The situation was different from Eirene’s case.

Millia hadn’t just interfered with an attack; she had demonstrated a clear threat.

Unlike Eirene, who was blinded and could no longer do anything, Millia could use magic again once she recovered her mana.

So it was inevitable that she would be seen as a target to eliminate.

Millia sensed this too, which is why she hesitated to step forward.

‘But Esmeralda told me to do it. She must have a plan.’

Still, she trusted her comrade.

Even though she prioritized herself, she considered Esmeralda a friend and knew Esmeralda wasn’t the type to abandon friends.

So she could easily trust her even in a life-threatening situation.

That’s why she didn’t even blink when First charged at her as if he would tear her throat out at any moment.

And at that moment.

“Tina!!!”

At Esmeralda’s shout, Millia’s body was yanked to one side.

Someone had snatched her away.

The hero party’s scout. The red streak faster than anyone else.

“What the hell is going on here?!”

Tina, who had failed to stop Lug’s escape and decided to join the hero party first, had grabbed Millia at the perfect moment and moved away from First.

A world stained with blood.

Tina, sprinting across the blood-soaked puddles where few survivors remained, trusted her instincts and acted.

And as a result, she succeeded in saving Millia without even understanding the situation.

Confident in this outcome, Esmeralda targeted First, who had slashed at empty air after missing Millia.

CLANG!

But First immediately turned around, and his claws shattered the sword Esmeralda was holding once again.

The sword she used for her shadow sword technique while surrounding First and looking for blind spots had long been depleted.

She had been wielding weapons from fallen soldiers in the blood pool like disposable items. And with such disposable weapons, it was impossible to even wound First.

“Tanha!!”

“You don’t need to call so loudly, I already know.”

The moment her sword broke, Esmeralda called not Tina’s name but Tanha’s. Another soul residing in Tina’s body. The most experienced warrior of the dragon clan. She would know.

She must have set up a trap.

“Kuk?!”

SCREECH!

And Esmeralda’s expectation was right.

First’s movement froze for a moment as he tried to grab her neck after shattering her weapon.

Tanha’s weapons were chakrams and wires.

Yes, when she snatched Millia, she had deployed her wires.

And First, giving in to rage, failed to notice the wires and was bound.

Of course, it would only be temporary.

He could break the wires with greater force or pass through them by turning into mist—he had many options.

But…

“That’s enough now.”

That brief moment was sufficient.

Esmeralda drew a new sword from her waist.

All the swords she had been using for her shadow sword technique were broken. She couldn’t win with the swords she had picked up from the battlefield.

Yes, she had been waiting for this moment from the beginning.

This very moment…

“We’ve won.”

She had been waiting for her holy sword to complete its self-repair.

It didn’t matter if it broke again.

It didn’t matter if she fell again.

Because she had risen again despite being broken and fallen many times.

First was a formidable opponent. A monster so powerful that even the entire hero party together couldn’t defeat him.

But he had too many enemies.

“Legion Commander First.”

He had to face the leader of the Twelve Thousand and was betrayed because he couldn’t understand others’ hearts.

He had expended energy on Robeno’s relentless attacks and Lacrima’s deceptions.

After all that depletion, he faced Esmeralda and still maintained the upper hand throughout.

But he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know how a wounded beast fights. He doesn’t know how to face a stronger opponent from a weaker position. He doesn’t know how to find answers in an unfair fight.

Because he was a noble powerhouse who reigned alone.

He cannot understand what it means to be weakened.

So the final victor is not the monster with overwhelming power, but the victory of people who live together.

“Mere… mere likes of you… insignificant vermin…!”

The radiance imbued in the holy sword.

It was the lingering attachment of those who had turned their backs on the world and moved beyond.

The lingering attachment of those who loved the world resonated with Hero Esmeralda’s heart, creating a transcendent power.

Golden radiance.

The will to save the world no matter what.

The power contained in that will was…

SLASH!

A power that gave an opportunity to equalize in the face of all unfairness.

Thus, Esmeralda’s holy sword cut through the very existence of First as he tried to escape by turning into mist.

“Haah…”

It was the moment when the monster feared by all was defeated.

***

Lug laughed transcendently.

He laughed at the sight of Belphegor, who was indignant, asking if he was looking down on her.

He had made up his mind, but the conditions were not yet complete.

So he needed a collaborator.

And that collaborator was the Demon Lord Belphegor right in front of him.

Yes, that’s why…

“Actually, back then. That day when that child and you dropped me. I could have prevented it.”

Lug began his story.

He explained why he had come this far. After all, this stalemate was the only way to explain it.

“Prayer isn’t about calling out loud, but about what you deeply wished for in your heart. Since I’m the one who hears and descends even when you pray silently, how could I not understand the hidden meaning?”

Lug knew the Pope’s true intentions.

That he had deceived Belphegor and intended to drop him.

And the Pope also knew that Lug understood his true intentions.

Yes, despite that, he had begged.

The Pope had offered a selfish prayer.

“That child cried out to me, asking for sacrifice.”

To save the dying world. If only you would sacrifice yourself, couldn’t we do that? Please give a future to the children yet to be born.

He wanted to purify the world by implanting the power of a celestial deity into a demon lord and detonating it.

“Surely… that child must have come to know too much.”

A child more devout than anyone.

A child who always shared what they had to save people.

But that child ended up harboring a dream beyond their capacity. The thought of wanting to save the world.

Yes, they saw the world, not individuals.

They looked at statistical numbers, not relationships with people.

So arrogantly, they placed the value of the future and the existence of the demon realm on a scale and measured their worth.

Tears flowed at the sight of someone trying to shoulder too much.

The Pope also despised and grieved over such aspects of himself. Yet he still wanted to do it.

But that child had seen too much. They knew that at this rate, the world would certainly perish.

“In the end, I decided to descend there that day.”

“You were going to accept that betrayal? To be sacrificed obediently?”

“No.”

Lug shook his head.

He understood the Pope’s prayer. But the outcome would clearly lead to the sacrifice of countless people.

Sacrificing people living in the present for the future was unacceptable. He had no intention of answering that prayer.

So he descended there. He came to respond to a prayer.

But…

“I came down after hearing your prayer, Belphegor.”

It wasn’t the Pope’s prayer asking for sacrifice for the world.

“You said you were struggling. You asked to be saved. You wanted someone, anyone, to listen to you.”

For the king of a fallen nation, crushed under pressure.

For the ignorant ruler who was beginning to reach extreme conclusions because no way forward seemed visible.

To answer the voice of a child crying silently.

For the pitiful girl who had risen despite a fate that should have ended in death long ago.

“That’s why I came here.”

To answer that prayer.

“To have the conversation you so desperately wanted—to understand each other.”

Lug had come all this way through those long years and many trials.